Is Not Magazine

Is Not Magazine was a project initiated by (Chase & Galley founder) Stuart Geddes (with friends Mel Campbell, Natasha Ludowyk, Penny Modra and Jeremy Wortsman) in 2004. It was published as a four-sheeter (2m x 1.5m) bill poster on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney from April 2005 to July 2008. It published a range of fiction and non-fiction content in many forms including, but not limited to, 2000 word essays, 300-500 word columns, comics, illustrations, diagrams, and 160 character (text message length) 'flash fictions'. There was also a crossword.

Is Not was an experiment in publishing, design, reading and community building. It explored a grey area created by the crossover of two themes for each issue (love/lust, seeing/believing, habit/addiction, etc), carried no advertising, was funded through launch events for each issue and thus lived by the participation of the community that sprung up around it.

In 2006 Is Not Magazine won the Premier's Design Award for Communications Design as part of the State of Design festival. In 2009 the final issue was nominated for the Designs of the Year award at the Design Museum in London. It has also been presented at conferences and been written about at length innumerable times in the design press and mainstream media in Australia and internationally. In 2011, Is Not was included in the international survey show Graphic Design: Now in Production, at the Walker Art Centre.

Notes

Information

Chase & Galley is a small design studio based in Melbourne with a critical interest in print publication design. The studio is peopled by Stuart Geddes and Tristan Main.

Chase & Galley started life as a collaboration between Stuart Geddes and Jeremy Wortsman, emerging from their first project together - Is Not Magazine. Due to his expanding commitments to the Jacky Winter Group, which he founded, Jeremy left the studio.

Stuart continues a teaching relationship with RMIT and Monash Universities, is on the board of West Space, one of Melbourne's most prestigious and innovative ARIs, was for two years the art director of Monument magazine, was for two years a councillor for AGDA Victoria, and in 2008 was an international judge on the London D&AD awards in the Newspaper and Magazine design jury.

Colophon

Colophon

Designed by Chase & Galley.

Typeset in Plan Grotesque, designed by Nikola Djurek and published by Typotheque and Georgia, designed by Matthew Carter.